With advances in integrated circuit, microprocessor, networking, and communication technologies, an increasing number of devices, in particular, digital computing devices, are being interconnected. This increased interconnectivity of computing devices has laid the groundwork for a communication infrastructure particularly well suited for digital communications between such computing devices. More specifically, the increased interconnectivity of computing devices has led to the increased use of digital documents in the formation of contracts.
In the past, digital documents, including digital contracts, were limited to digital reproductions of paper-based contracts. Over time, however, computer-based applications have grown increasingly sophisticated enabling the formation (including drafting) and analysis (including editing) of entirely digital contracts. Such digital documents often lack many of inherent security attributes of signed paper documents, such as the semi-permanence of ink embedded in paper, watermarks, the distinctiveness of individual signatures, and the general difficulty associated with erasing, interlineating, or otherwise modifying words on paper. Thus, traditional methods for verifying the authenticity and integrity of paper-based contracts are rarely applicable to digital contracts.